u/DarkGodCthUwU

Obviously few if any kings, archons, presidents, popes, and countless other forms of ruler perfectly lived up to ideals like justice and piety, but my understanding is that in ancient and medieval times, popular ideas of rulers and political authors often emphasized that the powerful need to be just, obey the laws of their people, and be pious according to their customs, with moderm authors like Machiavelli amd Hobbes popularizing the open discussion of the brutality and hypocrisy that often comes with politics that, in their view, could be necessary and a lesser evil not to be avoided for the state's well being. Do any political scientists take ideas like the necessity of virtue in rulers or sanctity of law and custom seriously or is that all just old cope?

What would an Italian Roman think of German diets? And would I eat much local food? What are the differences?

Would the sea food I have access to be salty enough or do I need to buy salt?

Hi! I'm sorry if this comes off as inflamatory but it's a pretty confusing detail for me that gives me reservations. If the councils that compiled the bible and determined orthodox theology like the trinity were by the church, for the church, and supported the united church with the ancient patriarchs, why would a Protestant say 'Their decisions were done with the proper authority but now the Catholic/Orthodox church has no authority"? I hope I'm not strawmanning Protestantism on accident, I realize a variety of positions exist so perhaps the question is poorly formulated.

Also, I'm a bit confused on the difference between nous in platonic thought and the Stoic Logos

My understanding is that there are a few ways an ethnic religion forms, though I've only identified 4 so far

1: Trivial religious differences between culturally or politically diatinct groups accumulate partially as a means of differentiation. The best example being Judaism.

2. A universal religion retracts into insularity such as refusing new converts. Druze used to do missionary work until they shut down that policy, becoming, as interpreted by many scholars but met with some controversy, an ethnic religion

3. A people is transported to a new environment that highlights their ethnic and religious distinctiveness or the environment changes to the same effect. The best example being the various Afro syncretic religions of the new world founded by slave populations.

4. An intentionally created ethnic religion like YSEE (The Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes), a greek neopagan group who, like Jews,.accept converts who must become culturally greek, much like the Jewish policy for converts.

Is the origins of an ethnic religion even a useful piece of information in understanding the mechanics of an ethnic religion? Does it allow for any predictioms to.be made?

The Ottomans and the Iberian royals both claimed to be heir to Rome via conquest and a Byzantine royal giving the right to the empire respectively. Did this make legal sense? Did there exist precedent for the Empire as an institution to go to a new state entirely? Did the restoration in 1261 provide a legal basis for Empire-by-conquest?

So, obviously, a big reason incest is bad ia the whole gene issue. Nobody wants their kid to be a crippled potato brain. That has me wondering though: Do any settings with gene editing or cloning or smth explore what counts as incest or how incest is viewed?

Here's the gist of my idea: You audit someone's wealth, they purchase a free (while they're alive) plan that depending on the wealth may cover in home care, transporting their groceries for them, maintaining their home and yard, etc. In return, they have to make you their primary heir. After they kick the bucket and you inherit their shit you obviously sell it. I think this business idea has potential in the future due to declinimg birthrates; there will be a lot of old people but not a lot of young people which is good because that means the young people will be spread thin AND there will be less competition for heirs. Some issues that might arise are

1. What if the old person lives too long? One possible remedy I could see would be to have specific plans that only cover a certain amount of years with any further time requiring a new plan with a larger chunk of their possessions set to go to the business

2. Contentious family dragging you in court to get a cut of their grandma's shit or whatever. I have no solution to this

3. Liquidity during the early years before a bunch of old people die. This would have to be addressed how any initially unprofitablr business would be: investors and starter capital.

So, I'm curious, where does this idea break down? I figure if it were a good idea it would probably already exist so there is probably some chigger in the woodpile I can't see.

Hi! I am passionate about ciphers, scripts, and conlangs, so I have a few writing systems I use for my journal. My main one though, it has a few letters where I just slat together super common sounds to be lazy, so "Ch" is a symbol, and "Ng" is a symbol. Now, I know that doesn't make it a syllabary, but it did spark my imagination: Would English work as a syllabary? Would there be any downsides? For a moment let's ignore the question of "why would people change this?" Or "How would it be coordinated?", I'm trying to talk about the language itself more than economic and political circumstances. Also, if some languages ARE better suited for syllabaries than others, why? What features work for or against a syllabary writing system?

For example, imagine a culture which does not think deities are beings with agency, but that they are merely forces that can be manipulated to varying success through words or offerings, like how one manipulates radio waves to send messages. Do you think they would be capable of getting blessings, working miracles, etc? If there is a minimum knowledge of theology needed to build a relationship with deities, is it possible to discover this minimum? If it is possible, has it been discovered?

I am not a puritan, I just don't want to be browsing comics on the couch around family just for literal unmarked porn to show up. I will NOT sub to your patreon, good day sir!

I have a friend named Matthew, and unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a name with a clear feminine version in English. For the sake of clarity I'll use he/him when referring to Matthew. So, Mattthew, he's English and Irish American more or less, so latin names are kinda off the table. Some ideas are Matilda (Retains the nickname, which he likes), Maddelyn or whatever the default spelling is for that name, any ideas? Matthew wants to retain elements of his identity cause, while Matthew will be a deadname someday, it's not like Matthew's changing much as a person. He doesn't want to strongly distance himself from his past, y'know?

To generalize a bit, my understansing is that Roman religion had a variety of specialists who'd administer rituals, read the will of deities through practises like looking at animal organs, pater familiases would maintain the relationship between their family as a whole and the Genius, etc. Neopagan religions broadly lack the cults, familial or domestic, that the ancient romans had, so I'm curious, what do you think of ritual specialists, diviners, and holy men? Do you view their role in the past as unnecessary now due to factors like the spread of education and literacy? Do you view them as flim flam scams? As necessary but sadly often unoccupied? How can you tell a legitimate priest, diviner, or other holy figure from a crazy person or a scammer?

My understanding is that anglo supremacism or at least north european supremacism was commom among racist white americans. I'm curious as to how the Confederates who fled to Brazil felt about being ruled by Iberians and living in the same land as race mixers? Did they put up a fuss or pretty much just adopt or tolerate local customs?